- metadata: - source: https://compactmag.com/article/sweden-s-populist-moment-that-wasn-t - people: [[Malcom Kyeyune]] > Please support independent journalism by [subscribing](https://compactmag.com/subscribe) to [Compact Mag](https://compactmag.com/about/) --- # Sweden's Populist Moment That Wasn't | Compact Mag Swedish voters on Sunday headed to the polls for parliamentary elections. Despite the inauspicious date—Sept. 11—and the [mounting crises](https://compactmag.com/article/europe-on-the-brink) facing Europe, the election took place with little incident: There were no riots or violence, nor even signs of acute polarization. There is always a temptation to fit electoral events into grander political narratives. Some outlets [reported](https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/11/this-is-swedens-populist-moment/) that the election was “Sweden's populist moment,” and that the rising fortunes of the right-wing Sweden Democrats signal a backlash against a “globalist political elite.” Others [framed](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/11/swedish-election-exit-polls-far-right) the election as an instance of the “far right” making huge gains in a previously stable and tolerant liberal democracy. “The 2022 election was a stability election, not a populist one.” Neither narrative is correct. In fact, the 2022 election was a stability election, not a populist one. To be sure, the Sweden Democrats’ electoral share grew by 3 percentage points. But contrary to most coverage, the party’s politics can’t really be described as “far right” outside of cheap polemics. The Sweden Democrats may be defined by resistance to immigration, but their main antagonist, the Social Democrats, are moving in an anti-immigration direction themselves, belatedly following the path laid out by their Danish cousins. Gone are the days when the Sweden Democrats had a monopoly on the immigration issue. Beyond immigration, the Sweden Democrats differ significantly from other major right-populist parties in Europe, which mostly began as libertarian-leaning outfits. Norway’s Progress Party was an anti-tax, anti-big-government vehicle before it became an anti-immigration party; Alternative for Germany started out as an anti-EU party staffed mostly by academics. The Sweden Democrats, in contrast, never strongly opposed the welfare state, and today, they must thread the needle between the reality of their coalition with other Swedish right-wing parties and the interests of the working-class voters they have siphoned away from the Social Democrats, the center-left establishment party. The far more surprising outcome of last weekend’s election is that the Social Democrats’ share of the vote grew by 2 percentage points. This, after having been in power for eight years under an uncharismatic prime minister, Stefan Löfven. Once you add the fact that a new party, Nyans (meaning Nuance), made a huge dent in the Social Democrats’ vote share in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, the latter’s overall gains are even more impressive. Generally, in “populist” elections where the people are tired of the old, corrupt parties that rule them, voters don’t make the ruling party the second largest winner on election night. So what really happened? Clearly, voters are already feeling the pain from rising food, gas, and electricity prices, and they can see the massive economic storm clouds gathering on the horizon. But unlike with center-left parties elsewhere on the Continent, voters have no reason to heavily associate the Social Democrats with geopolitical adventurism. On the contrary, the Swedish right has criticized the Social Democrats for their reluctance to stand up for Ukraine. In sum, the lesson of the Swedish election is the opposite of the sensationalist narratives being bandied about. Far from illustrating a slide towards extremism, Swedes in 2022 demonstrated that voters tend to be small-c conservative in times of impending crisis. Despite the Sweden Democrats’ advances, to call the electoral result a massive win for the right is obtuse; already before the election, the Social Democrats’ majority was razor-thin. Likewise, with the latest results, any right-wing government will likely have to rely on a single parliamentary seat to stay in power. A single breaking of ranks—not unprecedented in recent history—and the government would collapse. If there is anything here that foreign observers should take away, it’s that people are far more concerned with being able to pay their heating bills than with being part of a “populist moment.” The moment the fundamentals of ordinary life are threatened, many voters will opt for stability over promises of radical change. The Swedish stability election of 2022 should be instructive for those who have missed this basic fact about politics.